Child poverty

Nearly 1 in 5 children who are living materially deprived lives – 2.3 million in total – are excluded from the government's headline measure of relative income poverty, according to a report from the Policy Exchange think tank. This, it says, is despite the £170 billion spent between 2003 and 2010 on financial support for the poorest households with children.

The Department of Work and Pensions has just published the results of an online poll as part of its contribution to its own consultation on measuring child poverty. But, like the consultation itself, it is deeply flawed.

The PSE team has already published its (highly critical) submission (PSE policy response working paper No. 8) to the government consultation which closes on 15 February.

Around 200,000 children are living in poverty in Wales, or one in three of the total, according to a new report from the Save the Children charity. In addition, as many as 90,000 live in severe poverty. On both counts, Wales has the highest rate of child poverty of any nation in the UK.

As many as nine out of ten people say children can be described as living in poverty if their parents are addicted to drugs or alcohol, according to an opinion survey carried out for the government. This is more than the proportion who say lack of money is a factor in child poverty.

The results come from a survey carried out in December 2012 by GfK NOP. 967 people were contacted by telephone. They were asked the question: 'Could you please tell me how important you think each of the following are when deciding whether someone is growing up in poverty?' (followed by a list of 12 options, of which people could pick up to four).

On Monday 21st of January, in response to a question about the government’s commitment to reducing child poverty, the Secretary of State for Work and Pension talked of a:

‘full public consultation about a better way to measure real child poverty that the coalition Government will set and measure ourselves against. Income will be part of it, but not the dominant part ...’ (Hansard, vol. 557, no. 100, p73)

Public opinion prioritises benefits for older people at the expense of families and children, according to a think-tank paper examining attitudes in the United Kingdom, Denmark and France. And it warns that growing inequalities in electoral participation risk further entrenching this position.

The government's consultation paper on Measuring Child Poverty is ‘conceptually completely inept and confused’, argues Professor Jonathan Bradshaw in the PSE research team’s response to the consultation. In particular, ‘it fails to recognise the fundamental distinction between measures of poverty and the characteristics of poor children and the associations and the consequences of poverty’.

The government has admitted its policy of capping increases in benefits will result in around 200,000 more children being in relative income poverty by 2015-16. The information has emerged in a written answer in Parliament from a junior DWP minister.

Following the recent Autumn Statement, the government is planning to limit the increase in most working-age benefits to just 1 per cent in each of the three years, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. This is likely to lead to benefits both being cut in real terms (relative to consumer prices) and falling behind average earnings increases over the period.

The Child Poverty Action Group said the government's child poverty strategy was in 'utter disarray', with its policies overall set to push a million more children into poverty by 2020, and accused ministers of being 'in denial'. The government said it was 'not helpful' to look at relative income in isolation as a way of tracking progress on eradicating child poverty.

Fewer than half of senior local council officers in Scotland feel that child poverty is a political priority in their authority, according to a survey by the Save the Children charity. The survey was conducted one year after the introduction of the Scottish Government's child poverty strategy.

MPs have voted to approve the controversial capping of benefit increases over the next three years. The Welfare Benefits Up-Rating Bill, which has been given a second reading in Parliament, provides for an increase of just 1 per cent for most working-age benefits, child benefit and certain tax credit elements in 2014-15 and 2015-16, rather than being uprated in line with inflation (in addition to similar arrangements already announced for 2013-14). Carers' benefits and certain disability-related benefits will be exempt, along with pensions.

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PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.